The case study is about the AMW organization which is a public relations firm that is exclusively staffed by women who are committed to the values of feminist movement. The organization is said to have been committed to experimenting variety of non-traditional management practices with the aim of applying the views of feminist ideology on developing and maintaining the organization. David Berg was a researcher who approached the organization with the proposal to study the organization. The researcher reports that his proposed diagnostic study did not go beyond the entry face hence the title of the article Failure at Entry. In most cases when a research process ends at its infancy stage it is usually a disappointment especially to the researchers. This is because the research is always terminated at the entry stage hence no value is obtained from the research process. This paper is going to analyze the challenges that were observed in this organization by the researcher and makes probable recommendations on how change can be made. The second part of this paper analysis the power and politics as observed in the organization. The third part of this paper is going to analyze the influence and persuasion as observed and pinpoint the challenges and draw concepts to the suggested solutions. The fourth part of the paper is going to look at consultation process and how the concepts of consultation are analyzed and suggestions made through the probable solutions. The final bit of the paper is the conclusion which is going to be made with relevant learning points identified.
Organizational politics is defined as existence of conflicting interest and agendas within the workplace which create some form of informal power dynamics and therefore influencing processes which are enacted and defended by the purported interests (Treadway, Hochwarter, & Kacmar, 2015). Power struggles together with alliance formation leading to maneuvering and cutthroat actions are observed in endemic organizations leading to lack of control in terms of planning, organization, directing and controlling.
The history of the company shows that the company was divided into five departments. One of those departments was the research and statistics department. The second department belonged to the graphics while the third department was the publicity department. The staff of account executive was the fourth department while the last department included the billing department and a couple of volunteers. The company thrived on proper research and statistics which was competitively done by the research and statistics department who provided clients with competent services. The accounts department was considered an unprofitable department because of its ideological reasons. The ideological results for considered to have been obtained from the graphics and publicity departments. In such an organizations ideological values play an important role in the internal life of the company with its relations to the client’s professionals and even the general public the researcher notes (Berg, 2016). According to the researcher salaries were allocated according to the experience and the needs of the employees and how they were providing input to the major clients. This distinctions made a lot of variation in various departments and therefore payment was being done in form of departmental success and not according to organizational hierarchy. From this case it is evident that the differences in organizational culture management and ideologies were some of the reasons for the failure of this organization.
According to the researcher 90% of the employees in this organization were women and all the leadership positions were also held by women. The second observation is that the organization was also very strongly committed when it comes to feminist movement and to the social values congruent with ideals of the movement. For that reason, the commitment of the organization was observable to be having expletives in implication when it comes to their behavior of the organization.
One of the characteristics of political powers in organization is that it is surrounded by formation of collisions, scheming, whistle blowing. Opportunistic agenda is also observed as major characteristic of such organizations (Cialdin, 2001). One of the notable influences is that this company nurtured social values of non hierarchy and maximum equity. Another observable factor that the researcher found was that decision making policy was centralized in the organization. This is an example of opportunistic character in organization which are having political powers.
In most cases organizations that are managed with a lot of politics tend to have career management with HR processes flanked with backstage influences and subjective factors when it comes to promotion. There is also the interest of the relationships with the managers and stakeholders. This could not make it easy for the researcher to be able to contact and have arrangements without getting approval from the manager. One notable thing is that the organization did not have discipline in terms of work policies. For example, there were no doors and their walls were not painted (Acker, 1990). People sat on chairs while others sat on the floor. The researcher notes that he could not move from his area of presentation which measured about 20 to 30 ft. He describes the room as warmly cluttered with spillovers chockfull but slovenly appearing as a pair of informal comfortable jeans yet functional. This is a characteristic of organizations with politics which thrive on unwritten rules. Unwritten rules are unspoken within the workplace and they are very important when it comes to success of the organization and will always be communicated consistently or expressively as a formalized work competence (Adams, Treadway, & Stepina, 2008). The researcher also indicates that he was in a room or about 25 people some of whom were sitting on chairs while others were on the floor were or either lying on the doorway. The researcher was also interrupted several times during his presentation by the secretary who could receive and interrupt the session more than three times while receiving phone calls.
From the researcher’s point of view there was a central group in the firm that was dealing with somebody coming from outside. This affirms the principle of social proof that argues that human will always follow the lead of similar other. He therefore concludes and makes a reflection that if the organizational boundary is reflecting relationships between the internal parts, then there are some pretty powerful data that he obtained from the company (Douglas & Ammeter, 2004). According to his experience the presentation of this kind suggested that his discussion and time of interaction was a dialogue between the group members and the outside presenter. This meant that the dialogue was having some critical questions that required the presenter to defend themselves with the reasons methods and motives from the group. The presenter notes that some critical points of discussions which are either positive or negative developed almost holy within the group rather than being directed at the research. According to him there was no need of presenting his proposal because it was going to be rejected. The principle of consistency shows that people will always align with their clear commitments. It is also observed that the group members were also using one another to generate discussions which were relevant to the issues that were being raised during the presentation (Ferris & Kacmar, 1992). The type of questions that were asked aimed at getting more information instead of putting the researcher on the spot. This kind of behavior shows the kind of power that the organization is having and the type of politics that is existing within the organization. The politics and power is also explicitly shown by the lack of hierarchy making it virtually impossible to carry on traditional entry programs such as the top down policies. It therefore means that the researcher use minimal objective of talking to some of the departmental leaders. From the scenario the researcher notes that they were no letters of introduction and even memos from the president. The researcher accounts that they process was very stressful. This stress is further observed to be coming from the constant feeling without the guidance or support which is generated by the organizational authority. This is further reinforced by the fact that there was no room desk and the researcher was exposed to forced openness in the process of research.
The researcher’s process of entry into the organization can be faulted. It was rather more professional. The researcher could have fit into the organization without seeking for formal meetings and advices. He opted to have requested for permission and continued with the research process by fitting into the organization.
The principle of liking dictates that people like those who like them. The principal of business is that if you want to influence people then win friends. Previous research that has been done in the journal of consumer research indicate that there are several factors that increase the reliability of increasing the liking process but the major ones are similarity and praise. Similarity concept draws people together. It has been observed in the past that managers tend to use similarities in order to create bonds with the recently employed employees and the heads of other departments (Gotsis & Kortezi, 2010). Informal conversations during the workday also tend to create an ideal opportunity when it comes to discovering at least one area of enjoyment. This is important because it leads to establishment of presumption and trustworthiness in every subsequent encounter. From the case study it is evident that the researcher had a liking for the Diane and Jan. For example, in one of the interviews the researcher notes that in her interview with Diane she felt there was a form of liking and therefore this update and created a room for a better interview. He also reports that Diane was excited for the interview and really cooperated. In addition, the researcher also notes that he engaged in an informal communication within the organization during the research process and interviews. This also created a sense of liking and persuasion making it possible for him to collect data.
From the researchers view he observed that they seem to be serious ingroup and how outgroup distinction within the firm. For example, unwitting identification with one or the other group created a scenario where it could affect the quality and the quantity of information that was being collected in the research process. For that reason, the researcher was carefully co-opted out of the ingroup policy. This meant that the researcher could not touch all the keys simultaneously showing that there was a lot of influence and persuasion within the organization (Guadagno & Cialdini, 2007). There was also a seductive quality of in group that was felt in the first instance. To reiterate more power it was interesting on the third visit that the researcher found a memo which was communicating about sick leave and vacations. The memo indicated the days and holidays and the number of sick days that are allowed in the organization. The researcher also noted that the at very end of the letter was enclosed with the words that the committee will review everyone's salary in June and December. However, the committee was not identified and even the person was holding the letter was blocking these words from whoever was reading. This is an indication of power and politics within the organization while also showing persuasion and influence.
In response to the memo he had written he noted that several people expressed their support for their project but only three submitted their return statements. The three were the usual participants he had interacted with the several times. This creates a concept of persuasion and liking which is very important when it comes to data collection. The fact that they organization decided to have a wide ballot on the project he is also a means persuasion and influence was used in decision making.
The researcher should have used the principle of liking to change the way he approached the organization. By liking the participants, they would like him back. This would have increased his chances of navigating through the company (Heilman, 2001). The researcher would have also used non formal means of communication. Things like memos could have been omitted since the company itself rarely used internal memos. The researcher also failed to wield power behind him in the organization. This could have tilted the way he did his research. The researcher could have influenced the leadership of the organization since it is centralized. This would have prevented his research study from failing.
Consulting is defined as a situation where specific assistance is being provided by an independent expert to be able to make advice or to act in a complex situation in which they did not feel competent to act in isolation. Consulting has three major roles of identifying the problem, researching and recommending the solution and helping in the process of implementing the solution. Internal consultation can take place through employees within the organization. They are always considered a cheaper way of consultation. Since consultants are usually members of the organization the process becomes more effective because the members are able to understand the culture and politics of the organization. The consultants are also freer to do their work because of the job security and the sense of satisfaction when they see the impact of their work. The hierarchical role plays an important role when it comes to the expertise that are used in fixing the organizational challenges (Mainiero, 2018). In this case collaborator consultant is to face the organization on the management and try to address the issue by joining the consultant’s expertise with the management intimate knowledge of the organization. According to the case study it is evident that Jan and Diane played the role of consulting. This is observed by the fact that they initiated the voting process in order to determine whether the research process was to be proceeded or not. In addition to this Jan also explains to the rest of the employees that it was her idea to embrace the research process. However, the leadership of the organization did not actively support the project especially by the facts that they were very few votes supporting continuation of the project (Douglas & Ammeter, 2004). The fact that the project could not continue also shows the existing resentment against the decision-making process and the power that is distributed within the organization. This can also be reinforced by the principle of social proof which suggest that people will always follow the lead of similar others. It is observed that social creatures will always rely heavily on the people around them focusing on how they think feel and act. They know this intuitively and will always rely on this. It is for this reason that most of the participants decided not to vote for the continuation of the research process.
The researcher should have used internal consultants in form of leaders to influence the rest of the participants to continue in this research. As an external consultant the researcher also failed to broker the deal with internal consultants. This apparently led to the failure of the research process. The researcher lacked proper participation and involvement. He lacked negotiation powers to enact agreements and could not manipulate the group to yield into his power (Acker, 1990). He also lacked education and support from the rest of the group members and most importantly he did the research alone. This signified failure from the start as he lacked numbers to coerce the participants to participate in the research study.
David Berg a researcher who opted to study the organizational structure of AMW company failed in his study because he lacked power to navigate through the unstructured organization existing within the company. A lot of power and politics describes the structure of the organization. There is a lot of informal communication and unwritten rules which the researcher failed to understand as he entered the organization. Failing to understand that the organizations leadership was all made of the female gender described the persuasion and coercive forces that eventually led to the failure of the study. It is concluded that the researcher could have conducted the study in an informal way without conducting interviews and having memos and other meetings. Conducting an observational study would be the best way of collecting data. The fact that the organization was fully feminine also made the researcher failed at the entry stage. He came alone and he was a man. He never had the help of a woman who could have conspired and navigated into the heart and core leadership secrets of the organization. Consequently, the researcher was treated as an outsider and rejected completely. His research process failed on the spot.
Acker, J. (. (1990). Hierarchies, jobs, bodies: a theory of gendered organizations . Gender and Society, 4, pp. 139–158.
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Berg, D. (2016). Failure at Entry. Failures in Organizational Entry and Change.
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Mainiero, L. A. (2018). On breaking the glass ceiling: the political seasoning of powerful women executives. Organizational Dynamics, 22, pp. 4–20.
Treadway, D. C., Hochwarter, C. J., & Kacmar, G. R. (2015). Political will, political skill, and political behavior’, , . Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26, pp. 229–245.
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